Find me a holiday please. We are skint so budget is low, but we will def need a break of some sort.....help!

[Aero]

No matter what I've looked at, everything seems sooooo expensive. Would love two weeks, but think will have to settle for one, anywhere in UK. Have to be near decent swimming pool though if not coastal. Farm would go down well with kids. don't mind caravan, cottage, would even settle for a tent if it's set up already!

If anyone can find me a nice cottage in Northern France (driving distance of Calais), that'd be good too as travel to France isn't too expnsive and I know the last gite we had was cheaper than a UK one, thus offsetting the ferry cost.

Budget would be £400 or so (£500 tops for a week). We need two/three bedrooms which can sleep five of us. Who's good at this. My eyes are boggling having looked at so many we can't afford!

Are you bothered by flying, if not have a go at this
The costs are per party NOT PER PERSON. Keep your eye on the number of people allowed and airport, then add £20 per person to the booking and thats the total cost. Got my daughter and her boyfriend 2 weeks in Greece for under £300 and did a week bracketing Oct half term for 3 of us to Spain for £210.
There is no changes allowed so make sure you read the description before bidding. I also had the main Thomson page open as well and managed to find out the true costs so that I didn't bid over.
There are new hols every 2 or 4 days.

Opps how many of you is there? The site above has mostly hols for 2 people but there are spates of 3 and 4 people hols you just need to keep looking.

This one is for 3 people and at time of posting was for £170 to Majorca. With one day to go on the bidding.here

That looks good. How do you find for five of us though as most say two tickets. can you specify somewhere the size of your party?

x-posts, but what a great idea if there's just two going.

Sorry mis read it myself, its for 2 people.

I have seen for 5 people and once for 6.
Have you tried Haven Europe, they used to be a good price early in the year, like May or early June, and their tents are well equipped.

Thanks DL. Really need to go in August as dd can't afford to miss school as she struggles with learning. Having said that, if it's a choice between no holiday at all or a week in early June, then I think the HT wouldn't object, but I'd def not take a fortnight out in term time.

Try for 1 week before May half term and the second week to fall in half term. Go as far south as you can cope with driving in France and enjoy brill weather. I am having a quick look and getting around £400 with ferry in a cheap caravan.

Oh, that is good. Can you link to what you're looking at. no SATs this year for ds1 or dd, so hT might ok a break in may.

www.siblu.com/index.php?WT.mc_t=PPC&WT.mc_n=Google&WT.srch=1&CMP=KNC-google&attr=siblu
You had best sort out the details from there yourself as I don't know How far you can drive or the ages of you kids etc. I have always found the European sites (this is Haven under a different banner) to be much cleaner, better laid out etc. than the British ones.
We personnally have driven to Spain from Calais and made one overnight stop in a motel, and this year are driving to Portugal (but we have much more time).

Ta v much DL. Will have a look. Can travel a fair bit with dc in car thanks to ds lite, dvd players etc!! Went to dinan in brittany a couple of years ago, but new kitchen extension last year means budget for holidays is now v much smaller, and holiday prices seem huge compared to what they were then too!!

I used to do it before mobile DVD's and game consoles. The one called Domaine de Dugney looks nice and is near the major Toll Free (mostly) motorway.

I used to go with brittany feries, book a gite and a ferry as a package. It didn't use to be terribley expensive.

I was just looking at that one DL, then the site (or my pc) stopped working and shut down, so will get back to it tomorrow.

Thanks Lucy5 - will look into that too. I'm normally good at finding us a reasonably priced holiday, but for some reason, so far, I've hit blank walls this time, but can always rely on smart mners to help in my hour of need. I think it's the cash squeeze, but in days gone by when we had hardly any mony at all, the Sun £9.50 deals were grand. We're not fussy, but three dc later rather ties us to going in the school hols if we can at all possibly afford it.

What about May half term here in Normandy ?

It's £350 for the week but £332.50 if you pay when you book as there is a 5% early booking discount. Ferry from Dover to Calais is £129 on cheap4ferries.com 24th - 31 May with Sea France. If you go through Quidco there's 6% off. So without early booking and Quidco it's £479, £454.13 with discounts.

For a week 23rd August it's £400 for gite (£380 if early booking) and £145 Ferry P&O (£136.30) so over budget at £516.30 with the discounts.

Haven't been there before but we are booked for the summer as has 3 beds, trampoline, climbing frame, swings, two ponies, goats, chickens, guinea pigs, pool table and darts, so I'm hoping enough to keep dc busy. Fairly close by there are two zoos, a pool, some theme park thingy and some other stuff. Lady who runs it is British and seems very nice from her emails.

Google maps reckon it is 3 and three quarter hours drive from Calais.

CTP - you are genius. that looks fabby and would suit us down to the ground for May. That would leave us free to travel to N Ireland in August to see my folks, which will only cost us flights. Off to email her.

Drat - dh has work commitment May BH weekend, so will def have to go in August. might be able to go over budget a little as travel would be included.

Hi Aero, would you consider staying in the UK this year? Haven Devon Cliffs park near Exemouth can be really nice, tons to do for the kids, huge pools, slides, beside a beach and if you got good weather it would be marvellous. Has some huge and smart mobile homes. Newman Holidays offer the mobile homes and park passes to rent for considerably less than DC. We've had some great breaks there.
Hope this helps.